Will it ever stop?
by cupcake01
Summary: An old enemy of Nick returns and threatens Greg without Nick's knowledge. However, after the incidents in the house, he's still concerned with his own problems and seemed not to realise the danger surrounding his little brother.
1. Prologue

**Hey guys! Did you miss me? As promised, I have here another story for you; it's a sequel to "Are you scared yet", so you better read this story as well... but it's also okay if you don't want to ;) Anyway, I hope you'll like it, and continue to give me such nice reviews as for my last story :)**

**Disclaimer: I still don't own anything :(( (oh, except Jack Canham... this evil is all mine ;D)**

**Summary: An old enemy of Nick returns and threatens Greg without Nick's knowledge. However, after the incidents in the house, he's still concerned with his own problems and seemed not to realise the danger surrounding his little brother.**

**Further Information: My mother tongue is still not English ;) So please just over read the spelling or grammar mistakes I might make... Please forgive me :)**

**And now, have fun with reading **

**Cupcake01**

Greg was exhausted. He had worked in the DNA lab for the past month, since it didn't felt right to him being back at the field. He knew that his colleagues wanted him back and that they needed him, since it seemed like the crimes didn't come to an end in this city. The truth was, he was still scared. He still blamed himself for leading Nick into danger and being to weak to get him out of the damn cellar. However, he had nothing said to Nick or anybody else. They wouldn't understand. They'd just look at him with their faces filled with pity and guilt, although it was him who should feel like that. It just wasn't fair. Why can't he just pull himself together and go back?

He knew the answer. Greg thought that his friends will never treat him normal again. They'd act overprotective, they'd always be worried. And the worst thing was, that they were right.

This was the main reason why he head asked Grissom to work at the Lab again. The other one was that he didn't sleep properly since he woke up in the hospital. Every time he closed his eyes, he had his face... his damn mask in front of his eyes and was unable to move. He started trembling and sweating and the nausea from the blood loss caused by his cuts seemed to have returned. To sum up, he wasn't sure if he could act normal if he was at a crime scene seeing the poor people being murdered. And he couldn't take a risk and make his friends seeing him like that. Especially not Nick. He already blame himself enough and has his own problems.

Greg sighed, for what seemed like the 15th time this hour. He was already in his third shift and really didn't want to go home. Being alone was even worse than being with his team and their worried looks on him. Luckily, he had enough work to do; Hodges and two others of the LAB were either on vacation or called in sick, so there were plenty of cases waiting for him to be looked over.

Greg took another sip of his Blue Hawaiian as he heard the door open.

"Hey G..." He heard the voice of Nick. Greg looked up and smiled.

"Wow, are you okay? I don't hear any music in here... for the first time since you work at the lab..."

That was right. Greg had continued to work like when he had begun at the lab, but he soon was annoyed by the loud music. It distracted him and made him feel unprofessional. And he had to prove again that he can be accepted as a CSI... or at least at a CO- worker.

"No... Everything's fine... I just needed to concentrate on those DNA samples..." Greg said and pointed at the microscope. He felt his hands shaking again and immediately put them in his pocket. Nick didn't have to see this...

"Okay..." Nick said and looked at his colleagues worriedly. Greg avoided his eyes and prevented as he wanted to make some new coffee. There it was again. This look...

"What do you want here anyway? I'm not done with your samples, if this is why you dropped by." Greg said. He didn't want it, but his voice suddenly sounded a bit too cold. Hopefully Nick hadn't remarked it.

"Well, I just wanted to know if you want to go with Warrick and myself down the corner to grab some food... Maybe pizza or something..."

Greg looked up and forced himself to smile.

"Yeah, I'd really like to..."he begun, but then saw the mountain of papers and samples on his desk.

"...but I really got plenty of things to do... Maybe tomorrow?"

Nick looked a bit disappointed but smiled back. "Yeah, no problem buddy... But tomorrow they'll be no excuses, okay?"

Greg nodded and saw Nick stepping out of Lab. He closed his eyes for a moment, but opened them in shock as he saw the knife in front of them. He sighed and took another sip of his hot coffee. _This is going to be a long night _he thought and continued to work.

**Aaaaaand cut :) So, how did you like the first chapter? Are you already excited for the next? Pleeeease don't forget to give me a review, as always, I really appreciate your opinions, advice and comments :)**

**Cupcake01**


	2. Waking up

**Hey readers! Are you already excited for the next chapter? I really hope you'll like it and please don't forget to give me a review :) Thanks a lot btw for the last ones, I was so happy to read them! Just continue like that ;)**

**Have fun with reading**

**Cupcake01**

_Flashback – One week before_

"Mr. Stokes! I didn't assumed that you were coming today."

Nick looked nervously at the Doc Wellington's face. The psychotherapist smiled at him friendly and pointed at the couch.

"So, how have you been doing the past three weeks?" he asked the CSI as soon as he positioned himself on the couch as comfortable as possible. Maybe it wasn't the best idea to return...

Nick hesitated. He wasn't sure himself what he wanted to talk about. But the doc was here to help him, wasn't he?"

"I... I'm okay." Nick answered, still nervous. He saw that the doc raised one of his eyebrows and looked at him like he was a child that had just eaten a piece of cake without permission.

"Okay... maybe not that good." he started again. "The nightmares still hadn't stopped..."

"Do you take the sleeping pills I prescribed you?" the doc asked him and made some notes as Nick was answering.

"Yeah, 'course I do... But I still see him, hurting Greg..."

"Have you talked with Greg about this?"

"No... not yet" Nick answered, starring in the air. "I don't want to... I don't want him to go through this again, you know, he already had enough of this. I'm sure he doesn't want to hear about my damn nightmares where he is dying over and over again anyway..."

"Maybe you should tell him... or at least speak with him about the circumstances..."

Nick looked at the doc; he had not wanted to hear that answer.

"How should that help me? Or him? How should it help to make him more upset, and me feeling even more guilty..."

"You know, the kid has gone through the same like you." the doc said. "And I'm sure that the aftermath concerned him as well. It could maybe built trust if you'd tell each other how you feel... or maybe just make you feel better once you get rid of your trauma. It's certainly not going to be easy, but you can only trust again if you prove that you are _worth_ to trust again, otherwise, it will be difficult to rebuild your friendship."

Nick breathed in deeply as if he wanted to inhale the words he had just heard.

He didn't want to admit it, but the doc just said something intelligent. Maybe he should talk to Greg. Maybe.

_End of flashback_

"Greg?"

_Please, leave me alone, I'm sleeping..._

"Greg, wake up, you're in the lab..."

_Was this Nick? Wait, did he said that I'm in the lab?_

Greg felt a hand slightly pushing his shoulder and suddenly, it hit him. Damn it, he was in the lab! Did he just slept in? _Please not..._

He opened his eyes, seeing, still a bit blurred, the mountain of papers in front of him and jumped up from his chair as he felt Nick's hand again on his shoulder.

"Whoa, easy Greggo... " Nick said to him as he saw his colleague jumping up.

"You obviously dozed off during work..."

Greg calmed down and sat down on his chair as he felt a wave of nausea coming up. He closed his eyes and tried to "think" it away; it didn't help much though.

"Are you okay?... Greg, and don't lie to me, I really can tell that you are a terrible liar..."

Finally, the nausea drifted slowly away and Greg forced himself to think clear. If he had slept in... God, Grissom was going to fire him, without even thinking twice. He opened his eyes, looking desperatly.

"Please, don't tell Grissom..." he whispered and tried hard to avoid Nick's eyes that starred at him in worry.

"Greg, I just want to know..." Nick stopped as he saw the amount of paper work on Greg's desk. Damn it, why didn't he remarked something? The kid probably had been working here nonstop, and now he had lack of sleep...

"Greg, for how long are you here?" Nick suddenly asked with a loud voice. He was so angry... with himself. He had just ignored the fact that his little brother was overworked.

Greg looked at him, not knowing to answer. He wanted Nick to be proud of him, not angry. And if he was going to tell Grissom...

"I... just a couple of hours..."

"Greg, don't tell me that bullshit!" Nick said to him. "I came in here yesterday at 6 p.m, and Cath just told me that she brought you evidence this morning at 8 a.m... and now it is 10 p.m.! And I don't think you want to me to ask the receptionist when you came in, do you?" This wasn't a question, and Greg knew that he had to admit the fact that he was in here for over two days. Without having a pause.

Nick breathed out in disbelief as Greg told him shakily that he had been here for over 48 hours.

"Okay, that's it!" Nick said and lead Greg to stand up. "We both go now down the street to eat something and then I'll drive you home so you can sleep some hours." As Greg was just about to protest, he felt himself being pushed through the door.

"I even don't know why nobody else saw it..."Nick murmured to himself.

"Nick, I can't leave!" Greg stood still. This was not how he had planned the day to end... "I... I have plenty of work to do, you saw cases yourself... and Grissom..."

"Greg, forget about Grissom, I'm sure he wouldn't be happy to hear that you worked hear nonstop... He actually cares, you know? He wouldn't find it good for your health if he knows that you are overworked... Besides, if you're sleeping in the lab, you could as good sit in a restaurant with me and eat something, right?" Nick smiled at him and Greg slowly managed to calm down. Maybe he was right... he was really hungry and coffee alone obviously wasn't good enough to get his body to a workable state. At least for now.

Greg forced himself to smile back, although he knew that it must looked fake, notably because of the worried look that Nick gave him again. He sighed.

"Yeah... okay. I'll go with you, but only if you won't tell Grissom about this..."

Nick looked in his friend's tired eyes. "Alright. Now let's go and get you something to eat."

…...

_10 minutes later_

The way to the restaurant had been a rather silent one. Nick wanted to ask Greg again if he was okay, as he still looked pale and very tiredly, but didn't want him to push. It was awkward. Ever since they had been with... this bastard, he hadn't actually talked with Greg about this. Maybe because Greg acted as if there had been nothing, he had the feeling to not confront him. Nick himself felt just useless. He had been... and actually still was, a terrible elder brother for the kid. He only felt guilty for not protecting him enough and was even glad that Greg didn't work at the field anymore, since it kept him away from the responsibility. It would have distracted him that he always had to think about the kid, the dangers of the job... Maybe that was why Greg himself hadn't talked with him a lot the last weeks.

"Okay Greg, now that you have at least some bites in your stomach..." Greg looked up from his food; he knew what was coming now. Nick would tell him how sorry he was, how guilty he felt for not recognising that he didn't felt that well... and Greg didn't want to hear it. He was just glad that Nick was here with him, even though it was under those circumstances. He missed the times were he and Nick could just hang around like brothers... Truth was, it was awkward; After the... incidents, he didn't know how to act in front of him. He felt embarrassed for being weak, for not getting him out. And now, he felt even more embarrassed as saw him himself fleeing from the reality and staying at the lab where everything seemed to be save and sound. He just didn't want to confront himself with the fact that there could be dangers out there, and he also didn't like the fact that Nick was working as there had been nothing at all. He was just worried...

"... I just want you to know that I'm glad we actually can hang around together a bit... you know, it's been a while since we spend some time together..."

Nick looked at him and smiled. He'd tell him today. He just had to, he knew that the kid was already pushing himself way to much, and he had to stop it now.

Greg tried to smile back and took another bite of his pizza.

"Yeah, I'm glad too... Sorry for screaming to you earlier... I... I shouldn't have slept in..."

Nick sighed as Greg looked at him in guilt. Damn it, this was going to be tough.

"Greg, you don't have to prove that you're worth working at the field... I know you are, and everybody else as well..."He made a pause and looked in Greg's eyes. "And you shouldn't work that much. You need to think about yourself sometimes, you know?"

Greg nodded, but kept silent. "Nick... can we... can we just not talk about this? I mean, can't we just eat here and enjoy our time off? I'm just glad that we spend some time without having to talk about the job..."

Nick wanted to protest, but saw the look on Greg's face. "Okay... Alright, let's just relax... You know what, I'll be right back, I just have to go to the bathroom, okay?"

Greg nodded again, and he saw Nick standing up and quickly going to the way to the bathroom. _Strange_, he thought. _Why was Nick acting that nervously? _Actually, it was him who should feel like that right now.

However, before he could think more about their conversation, he saw a man sitting down onto Nick's place.

Greg even didn't saw really up and murmured something like "This seat is already taken." He really didn't want to talk with a stranger right now.

"I don't think so." Greg looked up, not liking the tone of the man's voice. What was going on here?

…...

**aaaaaaaaaaaaaaand cut :) Wow, that was the longest chapter I ever wrote... My fingers already hurt from tipping that much ;) Anyway, I really hope you liked the chapter and that you are already asking yourself what's going to happen next... I promise to continue soon, just leave me some of your awesome reviews :D**

**Cupcake01**


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